We've been working on the back lot now for some months and I'm finally getting around to post an update. We have built a coop and the chickens now roam free (although we're still waiting on Dave's super new back gate, more on that later). We have stabilized the bank with grass and it seems that the erosion problem has been addressed. We have built some beds and are starting to grow a variety of compost crops to build soil for future charismatic species. We have harvested from the mulberry for the first time, giving our buddy Evan at After Five Brewing the fixings for his first batch of mulberry wine. We have cleared and or relocated most of the scrap materials and detritus to the corner by the building and the stage is clear for propagating young plants. Our compost operation is in full swing (eric got a thermometer and it looks like we're cooking!) We have even started demo-ing some of the ramp to make room for more cultivation. Our bioshelter awaits us as soon as we can get a crew together to move it. Mandy has the terrace on the hill planted with herbs and veggies. We built a door at the top of the ramp to contain the chickens. We have built an arbor to help spread the muscadine grapes. We have designed a future pond/wild wetlands area. We are slowly building our perennial polyculture beds and herb spiral. The micro-farm is alive and happening.

No big speculations on the future at this point, but experiencing the farmers' market at krankies again today (it's awesome!) -- I hope that at some point we can contribute to the local food economy and continue to build soil and food stability here in W-S.

The process of soil-building and the successive food production which follows involves the interaction of several micro-communities of plants, insects, fungi, bacteria, and other micro-organisms. We've begun observing and working with these communities in the garden to understand better how they interact and also how we can organize them to the benefit of our human micro-community here at the Werehouse. It's a meandering process, but essential to the slow-foods process we are trying to cultivate and exemplify.

Our work really began this past fall when we started a couple worm composting bins. These bins have since become rich biological universes supporting the worms and their companion micro-organisms as well as some fungi that have taken root. These bins provide an informative sample of the soil-building process in action, and we are now on the verge of harvesting the rich worm compost that will be used to fertilize the beds we're building in the garden.

Meanwhile, yesterday we began sheet mulching a large area in the back lot where an old trailer used to reside. Using cardboard from Krankies and a blend of our compost and free leaf mulch from the city, we created the base layer of a long-term soil-building pie that will nourish the microbes and worms and other tiny organisms necessary to build healthy soil. The sheet mulch will also control unwanted weeds and grasses thus giving future beneficial and useful plants the chance to flourish.

Our other new micro-community is the small flock of Rhode Island Red hens we are raising. Supplement acquired them a few weeks ago from out in Oak Ridge, NC and they are growing up fast -- bigger everyday and with a constant development of new feathers and funny personalities.

These birds will not only be valuable egg-producers come the fall, but their picking and scratching and nitrogen-rich manure will be invaluable aids to the soil-building process. We're slowly but surely building a coop for them out back, re-purposing materials from past construction projects. The chickens and their home will be a great and lively feature to the garden this summer!

Stay tuned for future updates....

Everybody's getting chickens these days, and it's not just because it's Easter time. Chickens have become a must-have for the backyard gardener, another cheep cheep way to save money and become more self-reliant when it comes to food. Anyone who's had a fresh, home-grown egg will attest to the greater richness and flavor over store-bought eggs -- even the top-shelf organic, free-range variety. And a small coop in the backyard is another simple means to re-connect with the processes of nature and our agrarian cultural memory.

Because chickens are such active consumers and producers, the savvy gardener will also take advantage of all the outputs they provide. If left to range in the yard, chickens will clear away unwanted grass, weeds, and pests -- prepping your soil for future garden beds by their very picky and scratchy nature. Meanwhile, their nitrogen-rich droppings can improve the quality of the soil, fertilizing the natural way. Chickens also add to the aesthetic beauty of the garden, bringing their clucky vitality to your backyard eden. Just remember, you don't need a rooster to get eggs!

Subject: Farmer's Market oh yeah!
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2009 12:46:07 -0400

Hi there everybody. Just wanted to remind you guys that Camino Bakery will be at the Farmer's Market at the Dixie Classic Fair from 6am until 11:30 or 12 on Saturday. So come visit, eat, hang out, play with my kids... : )
On a random note, I just watched this 18-minute lecture from my favorite website, TED.com (am I boring you yet?) and thought you guys might like it. Ken Robinson is smart, funny, and has a lot to say about creativity. Enjoy! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Cary
Camino Bakery
577-7568

P.S. The weather forecast calls for Saturday to be 71 and sunny!

Here is an interesting article on Restaurant Supported Agriculture.

February 19, 2009
Urban Composting: A New Can of Worms
By MIREYA NAVARRO
From The New York Times

ON a recent Saturday afternoon, Stephanie Stern and her husband poured 1,000 wriggling red worms from a brown bag into a plastic bin outside their bathroom, looked down and hoped for the best.

If things went well, the worms, already burrowing into their bed of shredded newspapers, would soon be eating three pounds of food scraps a week, reducing the couple’s trash and producing fertilizer for their plants.

If not, the bin would stink up their one-bedroom apartment in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and attract clouds of fruit flies.

“I’m a little nervous because I’ve heard the stories,” said Ms. Stern, 32, a museum educator.

Composting in New York City is not for the faint of heart. It requires commitment, space and sharing tight quarters with rotting matter and two-inch-long wiggler worms that look like pulsing vermicelli.

Continue reading here.

How to Grow Food
a workshop sponsored by
Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University
100 Reynolda Village
Winston-Salem, NC 27106

February 28* from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Learn to plan, plant, and maintain a four-season vegetable garden through discussion, demonstration, and activities led by the RGWFU staff. Topics include:
Growing organically
Designing a garden that works for you
Understanding local growing conditions
Starting new plants

Space is limited. Registration is required; the $65 fee includes all materials and lunch. Call the Education Office (336-758-3485) to confirm that space is available before sending registration.

Teachers receiving CEU will attend a three hour follow-up session, Food Gardening at School.

Download the registration form at http://www.reynoldagardens.org/pdf/how.to.spring.2009.pdf or call the Education Office (336-758-3485) for more information.

*In case of severe weather, the workshop will be held on Saturday March 7.

Some of you guerilla diners are familiar with the back lot at the Werehouse. Tucked behind the parking lot fence and hidden from the bustle of Krankies and the traffic on Fourth Street, it's a quiet oasis of green in an otherwise concrete part of downtown. It's the kind of rough hewn "secret" locale that inspires the whole Supplement experience and has been the site for shows, parties and meals for years.

Throughout the various stages and renovations of the building it has also been a way station for construction waste and other detritus, and the course of time has revealed particular landscape design challenges such as an eroding hillside and poor soil quality. Despite these challenges there has and continues to be willingness on the part of the Werehouse community to have a garden in the back lot. Over the years, efforts to build up the soil and plant herbs, trees, and shrubs have produced some positive results and now a more intensive garden design is under way.

The garden is a collaboration of Werehouse residents, Krankies Coffee, Supplement, and Camino Bakery. Using the principles of Permaculture design as a reference point, the garden will feature raised beds of annual fruits and vegetables as well as perennial fruits, flowers, and herbs. To support the soil on the bank we will plant a succession of edible grasses, shrubs, and trees. On the north side of the lot we plan to have a chicken coop, a greenhouse/bioshelter, and a compost system. Designed to evolve and mature over time, the garden will provide several services to the building and all its tenants as well as the larger community.

Smack-dab in the middle of downtown Winston-Salem, this garden has the potential to inspire other greening projects in the city and its suburbs– whether it be increased tree plantings to offset CO2 emissions or a boom of community gardening where once there was just a bunch of lawn grass.

Supplement is excited to be a part of this progressive, autonomous move toward food security, increased urban biodiversity, and "greenification". In an effort to raise awareness and understanding about the Permaculture design aspect of the project, we are planning a Saturday workshop to introduce the principles of Permaculture. The workshop, led by Werehouse residents, Eric Jackson and Jay Dunbar, will take place in mid-March in the performance space at the Werehouse/Krankies. Stay posted for more details!

In order to RSVP for Supplement #8 you must go to:

http://supplementws.eventbrite.com

Follow the instructions on the page and use paypal to confirm your RSVP.

Thanks,
Mitchell

YOU are invited to Supplement Dinner #8!


On Saturday January 24th, 2009 at 7pm we will meet at the Historic Nissen Wagon Shop (310 East Third St.) for a dinner prepared by local chef Starr Johnson and the SUPPLEMENT team. Space is limited so please RSVP early.

RSVP to http://supplementws.eventbrite.com

We are using a new system for RSVP so please follow the eventbrite.com link
and follow the easy online instructions. If you have questions please email us
at supplementws@gmail.com

SUPPLEMENT #8

Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be served at 7pm.
Food will be served at 7:30 pm.

Menu

*Cassoulet with local rabbit, duck confit, local fingerling potatoes, and white beans.

Roasted brussel sprouts and mashed turnips

Salad Nicoise

Local cheeses and bread from The Camino Bakery

Tarte Tatin from The Camino Bakery

*Vegetarian option will be available. Please let us know when you rsvp.

Underground restaurants are popping up all over the country. Here is another article talking about the local, organic, underground movement of diy/professional chefs and food fanatics making their way.

Spilling the Beans
There are a range of hidden and underground restaurants across the country -- some harder to get into than others. Here's a sampling of five.

RESTAURANT: Club 33, Anaheim, Calif.
PRICE: Membership starts at $4,500; annual fees are $1,925 and up. Minimum food charge is $59.
HOW TO GET IN: Write to Disneyland/ Attn: Club 33 /1313 S. Harbor Blvd. Anaheim, CA 92803
COMMENTS: Walt Disney created this members-only restaurant (behind an unmarked green door in Disneyland's French Quarter) in 1967. Regulars say they go more for the ambiance -- and the fact that it's the only place in the park with a liquor license. Membership includes unlimited park access, but the waiting list is several years long.

RESTAURANT: One Pot, Seattle
PRICE: About $35 a person
HOW TO GET IN: Request reservations at onepot.org
COMMENTS: In this new venture, owner Michael Hebberoy will be serving dinners -- cooked in one pot -- in various locations in Seattle. Some will be open to the public and listed on the site, while others will be "deeply private and not listed anywhere."

RESTAURANT: Paiza Club, Las Vegas, Nev.
PRICE: Entrees range from $16 to $138
HOW TO GET IN: Become a big gambler -- or make friends with one
COMMENTS: Tucked away on the 36th floor of the Venetian hotel, this two-year-old club specializes in Chinese cuisine and now lets in gamblers who wager more than $100,000 daily. (Prices are listed on the menu, but most patrons eat free of charge.) Some dishes might be an acquired taste, like the $98 papayas stuffed with real birds' nests.

RESTAURANT: Plate and Pitchfork, Portland, Ore.
PRICE: $85 to $135 per person, including wine
HOW TO GET IN: Buy tickets online at plateandpitchfork.com
COMMENTS: Held on area farms, each five-course dinner begins with a wine-tasting reception with a guest vintner and a property tour. Meals are served family-style, but leave the kids at home -- site warns that the dinners are not suitable for children.

RESTAURANT: Sunday Dinner Chicago, Chicago
PRICE: $55 for dinner
HOW TO GET IN: Hire the group to cater your party (email info@sundaydinnerchicago.com)
COMMENTS: Run by three friends who met in culinary school, including a cook at Chicago's popular NAHA restaurant, this trio runs a legit catering company in addition to the monthly supper club. Email with catering requests only: The owners don't invite anyone they haven't met in person.

JB, Mark, and I traveled to Snow Camp, NC this past week to visit Cane Creek Farm. We met up with Eliza Maclean and Marshay to learn more about Ossabaw pigs, pastured pork, and sustainable/humane animal husbandry.



We will be working with Cane Creek in 2009, using some of their great products and hopefully have a field trip to the farm.

Visit the website here!
www.canecreekfarm.us/

On Food: Exploring secret culinary terrain

By REBEKAH DENN

Ever wanted to sample the world of the underground restaurant? Jenn Garbee, a culinary instructor and Los Angeles Times writer, will take you along on a cross-country tour of 10 "Secret Suppers" in a book of the same name.

A local highlight is a look inside Seattle's Cache, including the recipe for Cache's signature "bacon-wrapped bacon," an oinkingly rich appetizer where chunks of pork belly are -- we now know -- simmered in a complex bath that includes star anise, Shiaoxing wine, sambal oelek and homemade chicken stock before being wrapped in bacon and baked.

The legality and definition of an "underground restaurant" varies state to state and house to house. Garbee defines the term in part by saying what it is not:

"It's not a standard dinner party with a few unknown faces around the table; it's not a group of friends and acquaintances who split the cost of dinners at rotating homes (otherwise known as a classic supper club); it's not a brick-and-mortar, fully licensed restaurant (which is not to say all undergrounds are illegal; catering licenses can come in handy)."

We attended a dinner in the book's honor at Cache ("Secret Suppers" is published by Seattle-based Sasquatch Books, $18.95).

I've been salivating over Cache's menus for a while, but it was my first time inside (and my last at that location -- it has since moved from Belltown to Columbia City). I would guess the group at the party wasn't the regular crowd, but it felt as if we could have been -- a bunch of mostly strangers who love food, sitting around a single long table, eating and talking and talking about what we were eating.

The book, of course, was a catalyst for conversation. Garbee described it to me as a snapshot in time. Underground restaurants are a relatively new element in the restaurant world, and their specifics are fleeting and unstable by nature.

Garbee doesn't expect the precise places she visited to be in place -- certainly not at the same address -- a few years from now. Still, it was illuminating for her to explore them as they now stand, and to figure out what they stand for.

Tracking down the restaurants wasn't hard for her, the tough job was piecing together which she wanted to visit to get a good mix of sizes, philosophies and geography.

She even made an in-person stop by one of my sentimental favorites, the online-only Sub Rosa in Dundee, Ore. (The restaurant is virtual, the distillery very real.)

Other places Garbee experienced included CookwithJames, a San Francisco-based dinner where "James, a 36-year-old advertising executive, and Pia, an Italian teacher and designer from Naples, Italy, host elaborate Italian dinner parties for a dozen guests" -- with courses cooked on a Lacanche stovetop and espresso made from a Spaziale machine, not the usual home setup.

Then there was Brooklyn's Whisk & Ladle, where the best bet for getting a seat is "to send a wildly creative e-mail (and don't forget to add a catchy header.)"

The locations may be ephemeral, but to me the handful of recipes included from each restaurant are the lasting creative keepers -- date-stuffed hangar steak from Whisk & Ladle, chocolate marsala sauce from Sub Rosa, a fig frangipane tart from, again, Cache.

The couple behind Cache is identified by pseudonyms in the book (all other names in the book are real), which surprised me. It has never been hard to track them down online, and in an informal chat a while back they thought the operation was legally legit. But it seems the in-print anonymity was in response to a recent state crackdown.

From the King County Department of Health's standpoint, a spokeswoman told me, "if an establishment, regardless what it calls itself (private club, dinner club, members-only, etc.) is essentially open to the public and charges or accepts money for providing a meal, then it essentially requires a permit from Public Health-Seattle & King County in order to operate. This is true even if the establishment moves locations or is by 'invitation' only, doesn't allow walk-ins, etc."

I would guess there's room for debate with Cache over what "essentially open to the public" means.

In any event, Garbee said that none of the restaurants involved had a problem with allowing a reporter into its guest ranks, or sharing its recipes.

The dinners may be clandestine, but the stories are here to share. In other words, the secret is out.